2006 Lotus Exige Custom Turbo Charged 5k Original Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

A restored Lotus Esprit adds lightness on Petrolicious

Spencer Canon believes the Lotus Esprit is a misunderstood sports car. The wedge-shaped exotics' reputation suggests they are incredibly temperamental, which means lots of expensive repairs. Canon sought to make sure his Lotus didn't suffer from such maladies, which was achieved thanks to a rebuild from a bare shell. The result of his hard work exudes 1980s style with some modern flair and even inspires Canon's career creating bicycles. The Lotus was a wreck when Canon bought it, and he spent months just stripping off the old paint. The car's condition prevented a complete restoration to original spec, so Canon decided to improve the coupe. He modified it in simple ways, such as replacing the power windows with simple pull straps. He also took inspiration from the color scheme on his company's bikes and painted the Lotus blue with a lighter stripe diagonally along the side. The completed sports car angers some purists for not being entirely authentic, but it's hard to argue with the results. Plus, Canon's happy, and nothing else really matters. Canon's Lotus has a rousing exhaust burble once he gets out of the city and out onto the open road. Take a ride with him in the latest video from Petrolicious to hear it yourself and to get a better understanding about the Esprit. Related Video:

Lotus Eletre specs, pricing and more detailed for European launch

Lotus revealed the Eletre in full last year, and while details were plentiful back then, the British sports car company has a lot more for us today in the realm of specs and pricing. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full layout of U.S. specs and pricing yet, but we can get a good idea of what to expect by looking at the European-market model. Three different versions will hit the market at launch: Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R. Performance is the same between the Eletre and Eletre S (the S simply adds more luxury equipment), but the R is a unique, high-performance variant. For starters, the base model and S will have an electric motor on the front and rear axles good for a combined 603 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque. Lotus says that will be enough for a 4.5-second 0-62 mph time and a 160-mph top speed. Driving range on the WLTP cycle is estimated to be 373 miles for these versions, but expect that number to be down when EPA estimates come out.  The Eletre R notches performance up by a wide margin. Its pair of electric motors produce a combined 905 horsepower and 726 pound-feet of torque, but thereÂ’s a little more than just more powerful motors going on here. Unlike the single-speed transmission the base models use, the Eletre R uses a two-speed transmission for the rear electric motor and a single-speed transmission on the front axle. Lotus says this allows them to optimize the car for ideal launch performance and to improve range at higher speeds. The shifts themselves are automatic. Lotus says the R is capable of doing the 0-62 mph sprint in just 2.95 seconds, and it has a slightly higher top speed of 165 mph. Despite the two-speed transmission, range still takes a sizable hit down to just 304 miles on the optimistic WLTP cycle. We also learn today that the Eletre will house a 112 kWh lithium-ion battery pack in all versions of the SUV. Lotus says it features a maximum charge speed of 350 kW on a capable DC fast charger, which is quick enough to bring you from 10-80% in just 20 minutes. AC charging maxes out at 22 kW, which would allow you to go from 0-100% on your home charger in just six hours. The last big spec Lotus shared today is curb weight. If you opt for the base model with no options, the Eletre can weigh as little as 5,489 pounds. And yeah, thatÂ’s obviously a wild amount of weight for anything with a Lotus badge on it, but the Eletre R is even heavier at 5,820 pounds.

Lotus Exige S tears the roof off

Some things just don't make sense. But then we're not sure they really have to. Imagine Porsche took the Cayman, which is essentially the coupe version of the Boxster, and turned it into a convertible. Wouldn't make much sense, would it? Well that's essentially what Lotus did with the creation of the Exige S Roadster.
The Exige, you see, was already the fixed-roof version of the Elise. So what was the point in turning it back into a roadster? That's what our friends at XCar tried to ascertain in the video below. We could tell you what conclusion they arrived at, but that would spoil all the fun. So we'll just let you enjoy the seven-minute clip and see for yourself. Just remember: it doesn't have to make sense. It just has to be a Lotus.